SHOKAN, N.Y. -- The Olive Town Board has adopted a ban on hydraulic fracturing, the natural gas drilling method commonly known or fracking.

The ban, approved by the board on Tuesday, was embraced by the group Olive Defense Against Fracking.

"The law was initiated in response to public concerns about ... gas industry practices and the potential for adverse impacts on citizens and the environment," the group said in a press release. "The new law seeks to protect groundwater resources, drinking supplies, air quality, public health, historic landscapes and (the) small-town character on which the town's tourism and recreational economy is based."

Town Supervisor Berndt Leifeld, in a telephone interview earlier this month, said the ban is largely symbolic because it unlikely drilling will take place in the town and the ban could be overridden if the state Department of Environmental Conservation approves the practice.

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"If the state wanted to do it, I suppose they'd do it," Leifeld said. "Our law is to send a message that we don't want it."

Leifeld said having the New York City-owned Ashokan Reservoir within the town's borders should keep gas drilling from occurring locally.

"I don't think we would see it even if we did nothing because the city is against it and they don't want it in the watershed," he said.

Activities prohibited under the ban include fracking-related drilling, storage, treatment, processing, disposal and exploration, as well as construction of structures used in drilling. The law also bars companies from establishing ponds, gathering areas, venting stations or compressors associated with natural gas or petroleum extraction.

The law contends that harmful impacts of hydraulic fracturing include "contaminated water supplies, air pollution, light pollution, traffic congestion, deterioration of roads and bridges, noise, introduction of industrial uses into non-industrial areas, human and animal illness and incompatible changes to the rural character of the town."